Hope review

Following Heaven and Hell, Hope isn’t up to Polish scripter Krzysztof Piesiewicz’s last trilogy-finisher, Three Colours Red (or Blue or White, for that matter). But it ranks respectably among the recent spate of surveillance-tech thrillers, layering the suspense with questions about personal choice and fate. After young daredevil Franciszek (Rafal Fudalej) secretly films the robbery of a religious painting, he delays telling the police, instead ordering the thief – a prominent public figure – to return the art. Angelic-looking and audacious, Franciszek’s motives are frustratingly never revealed, leaving us to decide whether he’s serving cosmic justice or playing God. Either way, he’s too enigmatic to let us emotionally close to the tragic events that unfold, leaving the heavy lifting to Max Richter’s haunting classical score.